The collection consists primarily of manuscripts of Lew Wallace's writings, correspondence, and other papers. Included also are some letters and papers of his wife, Mrs. Susan Arnold (Elston) Wallace, 1830-1907, poet; their son, Henry Lane Wallace, 1853-1926; and their grandson, Lewis Wallace, 1891- 1949.

The Manuscripts series includes the writings of Lew Wallace, 1827-1905, and Mrs. Wallace. For Wallace these include his autobiography, An American Duchess, Ben-Hur, The Boyhood of Christ, Commodus, The Fair God, Our English Cousin, The Prince of India, The Wooing of Malkatoon, and five readings from Ben-Hur; for Mrs. Wallace, "To Bethlehem," and a notebook of her poems.

Correspondence and Papers consists of a chronological file of correspondence and other papers of Lewis Wallace, 1847-1938, Mrs. Wallace, Henry Lane Wallace, and Lew Wallace, 1827-1905, principally the correspondence and papers of the elder Lewis Wallace. Most of this correspondence is with novelists, poets, dramatists, editors, journalists, lawyers, theatrical managers, politicians, and publishers.

Correspondents include Henry Mills Alden, John Berry Alden, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Lawrence Patrick Barrett, Rex Ellingwood Beach, Whitman Bennett, John Charles Black, James Gillespie Blaine, Clinton Tyler Brainard, Anne Marie Hampton Brewster, William Harlowe Briggs, Joseph Brooks, Nathan Burkan, Noble C. Butler, Walter C. Clark, Joseph Ignatius Constantine Clarke, Edmund Vance Cooke, Benjamin Crane, Crane & Anderson, Crane & Lockwood, Francis Marion Crawford, John Wallace Crawford, Samuel R. Crocker, Charles Bancroft Dillingham, William Dulles, Jr., Frederick Atherton Duneka, Bruce Edwards, William Henry Elder, Isaac Compton Elston, Abraham Lincoln Erlanger, Edward Huntington Fallows, David Gerber, Ira B. Goodrich, Ferris Greenslet, Edwin Augustus Grosvenor, Augustus T. Gurlitz, Benjamin Bowles Hampton, James Thorne Harper, Joseph Henry Harper, Harper, firm, publishers, Paul Hamilton Hayne, Edgar Eugene Hendee, Albert Tyler Houghton, Houghton Mifflin company, Henry Hoyns, Francis Janssens, Fred Bates Johnson, Robert Underwood Johnson, Charles Johnston, Edgar Stillman Kelley, Marc Klaw, Klaw & Erlanger, William James Lampton, Mrs. Joanna M. (Elston) Lane, John Larkin, Will H. Latta, Frederick W. Lawrence, Abraham Lincoln, John McCoy, Kenneth Macgowan, Elisabeth Marbury, Isaac Markens, William Alexander Miller, William Webster Mills, David Alexander Munro, Henry Thayer Niles, Henry Pettit, Gilbert Ashville Pierce, George Haven Putnam, Mrs. Harriet Denison (Butler) Read, Thomas Buchanan Read, Laura Ream, Paul Revere Reynolds, Joseph Hamblen Sears, Cuthbert Arundell Shoolbred, Lee Shubert, Howard H. Spellman, Oscar Solomon Straus, Maurice Strauss, Booth Tarkington, Mrs. Alice (Lee) Thompson, James Maurice Thompson, Benjamin H. Ticknor, Mrs. Julia (Abbott) Van Dyck, Frederick Warne & Co., and Thomas Bucklin Wells.

The Box Office Statements series consists of box office statements, 1899-1917, for the stage play Ben-Hur which debuted in 1899 and box office statements, 1906-1907, for the stage play The Prince of India which debuted in 1906. Included also are box office statements for motion picture adaptations of Ben-Hur.

Photographs includes a thousand still photographs from the motion picture Ben-Hur and a colored picture of Wallace's study in Crawfordsville, Indiana.